Associate Health Minister Casey Costello announced that the coalition Government has introduced legislation to tackle youth vaping.
The Smokefree Environments and Regulated Products Amendment Bill (No 2) aims to prevent youth vaping. While vaping has contributed to a significant fall in smoking rates, the rise in youth vaping has remained a genuine concern for parents, teachers, and health professionals.
The Bill includes four main changes to prevent youth vaping: a complete ban on disposable vapes, significant increases in fines for sales to under-18s, visibility restrictions on retailers – outside specialist vape retailers and from inside stores such as dairies and petrol stations – and proximity restrictions relating to early childhood education centres.
“Too many young people use disposable vapes – they’re cheap and easy to access. That’s why single-use vape products will be banned outright,” said Costello.
“We are also moving to significantly increase the penalties for retailers who illegally sell vapes, cigarettes and other regulated products to young people.”
The maximum fine for selling vapes or other regulated products to under-18s will increase from $10,000 to $100,000. The penalty for infringement offences will rise from $500 to $1,000 for individuals and to $2,000 for businesses.
The Bill also included early childhood education centres in proximity restrictions for new specialist vape retailers. For those applying to set up a new specialist vape retail store, the retail location must be at least 100 metres from early childhood centres. This builds on the requirement to be at least 300 metres from a marae or school.
“Importantly, the tougher penalties will be supported by far greater enforcement capability. For the last few years, we haven’t had the level of enforcement required, but 16 more dedicated smokefree enforcement officers will be in place by December.”
The Government has committed to achieving Smokefree 2025 and to stopping young people from vaping. This Bill will ensure protection for young people from vaping whilst continuing to support adult smokers to quit by maintaining access to vapes as a cessation tool.
“I hope that public submissions through the select committee process ensure that we have a practical regime that achieves both objectives. We want to get rid of the vapes that are most popular among young people and ensure that effective cessation products remain available for people to quit smoking and not return to smoking.”
The government’s smoke-free programme would involve updating and strengthening the regulation of smoked tobacco, vaping, and other nicotine products and updating the Smoke-free action plan.
